Consistent marketing: Thinking (again) beyond relying on referrals
The most recent ContractorCity newsletter reminds readers of construction marketing basics, making clear that while referral and repeat business are vital to your success, you can’t simply passively rely on word-of-mouth for your business survival. Referrals from satisfied customers are of paramount importance, and should make up at least 50% of your sales. However, many [...]
Emailed newsletters: The opportunity and challenge
For the past three years, I’ve been publishing a bi-weekly Construction Marketing Ideas e-letter. We send this newsletter to people who request it (often from this blog) and to our current clients and advertisers. The distribution varies somewhat issue to issue (for example, if the e-letter includes information specifically relevant to members of an association [...]
Socialtegic: Social marketing for the AEC industry
Socialtegic.com is still embryonic with just initial posts and 10 Facebook fans, but the concept is intriguing and over time the site may become exceptionally useful. Curtis Lewis in Orlando Florida describes the site/group as a “guide for using social media in the AEC industry”. The graphic look and format is really professional but I [...]
Getting it right: The virtuous cycle
After you’ve been in business a few years, you can trace the roots for things that seem to be routine parts of our lives. The annual Merkley Supply Ltd. (MSL) Show operated by an Ottawa building supply dealer who focuses primarily on masonry products (but sells plenty of other stuff) is a great example of [...]
Controversy sells (but do you want to risk it?)
Yesterday, while waiting for my late flight home, I returned a call from a U.S. contractor concerned about someone who had written a book advocating the use of his services as an owner’s representative for residential construction projects. The author suggests that the construction industry has practices and procedures which are unfair to the owner [...]
Testing your assumptions: A marketing lesson
Occasionally, we should test our assumptions. We may find surprises where we test the rules of the game. For example, right now, I’m in an airport lounge (free) because of a trip for which the original purpose proved to be totally unjustified but which has still proven to be profitable. When I reached the “go, [...]
Your employees and Construction Marketing
Your front-line (and for that matter, back-end) employees are really important for your marketing. Anyone your current or potential clients come into contact with sends a powerful marketing message, good or bad, depending on the relationship quality. If your employees are courageous, creative, sensitive, respectful and authentic, you’ll score marketing points. If they are bureaucratic, [...]
Construction marketing — In or out of isolation?
One challenge I have in advocating effective construction marketing ideas is that they only can work in context of your overall business and personal circumstances and values. No matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to help you to market and advertise effectively if you simply don’t believe in advertising or marketing. My [...]
Construction Marketing: The advantages (and dangers) of “relying on . . .”
When you think about marketing, do you think: “We rely on referrals and repeat business?” I will respond first with a complement. If your repeat and referral volume is great enough that you can obtain enough business to succeed without real marketing effort, you are doing a great job. Too bad, unfortunately, because you are [...]
The Book: Amost there
Designer Raymond Levielle has finished the Construction Marketing Ideas book cover. With final edits now complete, we will send the layout files to the printer within a day or two, completing a truly long journey. Julia Petrakis, the book’s indexer and final editor, has just set up her website at http://www.indexingandediting.com. I recommend her services [...]
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